39 Months. 3 Years and 3 Months.

That’s how long I nursed Little Man for. 39 months. I never set out to nurse for that long; my initial goal was to make it 1 year. Whelp…I definitely made that, and then some.

You know, I was surprised when I started nursing to find out that in the US, most mothers only nurse for 3-6 months. There is always a push for new moms to nurse, but then babies are given bottles of formula and nursing is thrown out the window. Hell, we were given 6 or 12 bottles of Enfamil for Little Man when we left the hospital, even though I had established nursing with him on Day One. Yes, it is due to the fact that he was in NICU for 2 days with blood sugar issues, and the doctors said he needed the formula to regulate it. I call shenanigans. He never got another bottle of that crap once we left hospital, and he has had zero blood sugar issues since.

But the biggest surprise when it comes to length of time spent nursing children, is that globally the average age of weaning is 3.5. Seriously? Let’s be generous and say most mothers nurse 6 months. That means in US, we are only nursing our children 1/7 of what the rest of the world is. If we use 3 months, it’s 1/14 the time of the rest of the world. Me nursing 3 year and 3 months, if the US average is 3 months, I’ve nursed 13 times longer than the majority of moms out there. DANG

And nursing is so good for children. Little Man has only ever had a slight sniffle – nothing else. He is the healthiest little kid I’ve ever met. Yes, I’ve dealt with my allergies, and so has Little Man, and I’ve had a few stomach bugs. And you know what? I’ve passed those antibodies along to Little Man as I’ve nursed him, so while he has not gotten ill, he’s well prepared to handle getting these illnesses in the future.

What I was NOT prepared for when nursing Little Man was the negative reactions I got, especially the longer I went. When Little Man was 1 week old, he went through a phase of cluster feeding, wanting to nurse almost constantly for a few days. MIL and FIL were down visiting, and she insisted that he was NOT getting any milk from me, so he needed to have a bottle of formula. Yeah, no, that didn’t happen, and she was NOT pleased with me. I did have some milk in a bottle that I had pumped (I was also leaking like crazy when nursing, so I started collecting it for when he needed a little bit extra), so Squatch gave that to him while MIL sat there frowning.

At 6 months, my mother asked if I was going to stop nursing. I just looked at her like she had a second head. “Why would I stop nursing now? My goal is to nurse for 1 year, and I’m halfway there.” Her reply was that at 6 months he should stop nursing, go to cow milk, and eat real food. Yeah, nope. While I’m not lactose intolerant, cow milk just does not agree with me, and anyway, Little Man’s doctor says not to give him any milk, other than breastmilk. So, I kept on nursing to 1 year old.

Then, at 15 months, he had a tooth just completely lose the enamel. Went to the pediatric dentist, who pulled it. I had everyone telling me that it was my nursing that caused his tooth to rot; the sugar in breast milk is bad for his teeth. Whelp, I talk to the dentist, and she said that was crazy, the breastmilk didn’t cause his tooth to have the problem, he just has soft front teeth. The doctor confirmed this at his next appointment. The other 3 top teeth were pulled when he was 2; again, not due to sugar in the breastmilk. It’s not like the kid’s teeth never get brushed, we brush twice a day, and have for 2 years.

Anyway, at 2, I cut back nursing to ONLY naptime and bedtime. Until then, I was nursing on demand. It took a bit for him to get used to the 3 times a day nursing (nap, bedtime, and waking up in the morning), but after a week he was ok. This past year, for the most part he nursed only at bedtime and waking up in the morning – he has skipped A LOT of naps.

Now, WHY did we end our journey now? How did weaning go? Well, if it was up to Little Man, he would not have stopped. We ended our nursing journey because he decided he wanted to go on an overnight with Nanny and Uncle B to the suburbs Wednesday. Mummy stayed home, so he was without milk. Let’s back up a bit, the past few months, he would nurse for 2-3 minutes at night, then roll over and fall asleep, same thing with naptime. So, it’s not like he absolutely depended on nursing to fall asleep. But, it has been 2 years since he was NOT with me 24/7, so this was an adjustment. Apparently he did not fall asleep until after 10, and woke up at 6 the following morning. He did cry because Mummy wasn’t there, and he woke up in the middle of the night looking for milk, but Nanny was able to just cuddle him back to bed.

When they came home the next day, he was completely exhausted, and I was able to cuddle him (with some tears) to bed for a nap. Bedtime, he had a bit of a meltdown, because I told him the milk was broken, both of them, so he couldn’t get any. He eventually curled up next to me and fell asleep, but it was NOT easy. What has surprised me, though, is that other than Friday morning, I have had no pressure from milk build-up. I had mastitis 3 times over the past few years, so that was a concern as I weaned, but it clearly is not an issue.

So, here we are, almost a week into him being weaned, and naps are still 50/50 if he’s going to fall asleep. Bedtime, he is asleep within 15 minutes, curled up against my back or with my arm around him at my side. I miss the quality time we had nursing, the booby hugs he would do while sleepy nursing in the middle of the night, and the ease of getting him to sleep. But it is so nice to have my body be MY BODY again. I have been so extremely touched out the past year and a half, not going to lie. Sometimes, as we’re laying down, he will pat a boob and say “It’s broken,” and then curl up with a sad face, but he’s coming to accept it.

Mamas out there: If you’re just starting out on your breastfeeding journey, hang in there. If you’re at the end, I’m sending you a ton of hugs! And for those who are long done with it, thanks for leading the way!